Friday, November 21, 2014

Like everything Blizzard do
these days, Diablo III is a major success. On second thought, it is much more
than that…It is the sort of MMORPG that sets a benchmark in the genre, and as
such, it is obviously a game all other hack and slash games aspire to be like. Clones
have sprung up all over – as it always happens after a successful Blizzard
release – and while some of these don’t exactly deserve a second look, Lost Ark
Online, made by Korean developer Tripod Studio and published by Smilegate, is
in a class of its own.

While a clone of Diablo III it
certainly is, as evidenced by the basic mechanics of the action and by the
overall concept of game-play, Lost Ark Online looks extremely interesting, at
least as far as we could tell from the ~8 minute long trailer video released to
the public. What makes it this interesting?

The game rips Diablo off so
well, that it may just end up taking hack and slash to an entirely new level.
The environments of the game are absolutely breath-taking, setting a brand new
benchmark graphics-wise. They aren’t monotonous either: from lush elven-looking
forests and mountains, to steam-punk tech areas, one will find everything in
it, and the graphics quality never drops one bit. The action itself is
mind-bogglingly spectacular too: from the trailer, it’s obvious that the heroes
in the game have a vast and spectacular repertoire of spells and abilities at
their disposal, with which they lay waste to legions of monsters, flinging them
around like ragdolls and causing some serious general mayhem.

The character selection is
quite impressive as well: besides the more traditional classes of Warrior, Magician
and Fighter (not sure what the difference between Fighter and Warrior is…),
there’s also a Gunner class, introducing firearms to hack and slash games
possibly for the first time.

Philip Thalberg is a Gosugamer.
Gosugamers.net has been the best online gaming portal since 2000 and the best
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Lost Ark Online: Taking MMORPG Environments and Hack’n Slash Action One Step Further